Republicans Introduced Anti-Trans Bill, Stopping Entire Legislature

Last month, when Nebraska State Senator Machaela Cavanaugh vowed to “burn the legislative session to the ground” over a bill to ban gender therapy for transgender youth, she was sick with strep throat and couldn’t get out of the capital due to an ice storm. .

“I was crazy. They activated me. I was too sick to give a shit,” she said.

The next day, Cavanaugh gave what would soon become a viral speech vowing to use every tool available to “inflict pain on this body,” referring to the Nebraska Legislature. It would launch what is now a multi-week filibuster on Legislative Bill 574, a proposal to ban gender-affirming care, specifically surgery and hormonal therapies, for minors. The legislature’s rules have allowed Cavanaugh, a Democrat, to essentially stall her 2023 session over her opposition to LB574, using what has become a valuable bargaining tool for members of the Democratic minority.

And in the end, it almost worked.

After pledging to remove references to puberty-blocking hormones and cross-sexing, LB574’s lead sponsor, Republican Kathleen Kauth, was able to garner enough votes Thursday to end discussion on the bill and advance it to one stage. review. Cavanaugh, who earlier in the week was optimistic about reaching a deal to kill off LB574, seemed to suggest that her filibuster would continue as the bill was alive and progressing. Nebraska lawmakers have been unable to pass any bills so far this session, resulting in a delay that has frustrated even members of Cavanaugh’s own party who suddenly found themselves at the center of the wars. cultural of the nation.

“People are trying to blame me for today’s result,” Cavanaugh told colleagues on Thursday. “I have no control over your fingers. I have no control over your buttons. You vote for it or you don’t vote for it.”

The testimony against the bill was intensely personal. Meghan Hunt, a Democratic lawmaker who has a transgender son, vowed never to work with her colleagues again. “This bill hurts me in an unforgivable way. This is a line they don’t cross with me,” she told them. “If he crosses it today, he’s going to stay on the other side because he’s done irreparable damage, and he’s hurting (the legislature) and hurting Nebraskans as well. Don’t greet me in the hallway. Don’t ask me how my weekend was.”

At various points, lawmakers tearfully pleaded with their colleagues to reconsider their votes. “We have had people who are directly affected by this bill (children, parents) write to us, come talk to us, share their stories. And we are prioritizing people who are not affected by this bill over people affected by this,” said Democratic Sen. John Fredrickson.

Cavanaugh, a nonprofit project manager and daughter of a former congressman, told HuffPost on Monday that his goal was to create exactly the kind of charged environment the legislature has become in recent weeks. His detractors disapprove of his tactics, which they have called threats and harassment. Earlier this month, one of Cavanaugh’s fellow Republicans tried to censor she for using the term “genocide” to describe LB574, which Cavanaugh believes would increase the already high rates of depression and suicide among trans youth.

“People are frustrated, but I keep saying over and over again that this is my intention,” Cavanaugh, 44, said during a video call Monday, sitting in front of a blue and yellow abstract painting that framed her face in wide wavy lines. . . Cavanaugh, a redhead with black-rimmed glasses, sounds like a Democrat from a GOP-controlled state that finally has some clout. “I want you to be frustrated, I want you to be angry, I want you to be irritated. I want you to want to stop this because you want to do other things.”

Before Thursday’s matchup, Cavanaugh was optimistic about his chances of preventing LB574 from advancing to a floor vote. “The fight is just beginning, but it will certainly be a time for celebration and relief, because I feel that killing this bill will save lives,” he said.

But behind the scenes, Kauth had been working on an amendment to remove the reference to hormone treatments, which had become a sticking point for several Republicans, Kauth told HuffPost.

“We had a couple of people who were a little shaky on it, so this solidifies that for them,” Kauth said. “It’s not everything I wanted, but it leads us to that vote.”

The Republicans needed to preserve their entire coalition to reach the House threshold to overcome a filibuster. The Nebraska Legislature is uniquely peculiar: the state has a single, theoretically nonpartisan house, the unicameral, with 49 senators who often meet by congressional district rather than by political party. Legislators are only in session once a year for two to three months.

In this deeply red state, Republicans predictably outnumber Democrats 2 to 1 in the legislature, but there are moments of cross-party breakthrough. LB547 was able to advance only because he had the support of one Democrat in addition to the 32 Republicans.

The battle for gender-affirming surgery for minors, as well as a proposed six-week abortion ban, signal a new partisan direction for what has traditionally been the least polarized legislative body in the nation. At the same time, the Nebraska Legislature is considering a bill by Kauth that would ban transgender public school students from using bathrooms and playing on sports teams other than the gender they were assigned at birth. Last year, the chamber dealt with bills on rural hospitals, municipal libraries and seeds.

“Until this year, we’ve never been faced with anti-gay bills, or bathroom bills, or bills banning gender-affirming care,” Hunt said. the washington post. “The legislature had not even debated a bill on an abortion ban until last year.”

Cavanaugh believes that LB574’s patrons are following the lead of national figures stirring up a dangerous frenzy over transgender issues. Donald Trump, who is running again for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, has promised punish the doctors that provide gender therapy to minors. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a possible Republican presidential candidate, has taken steps to end the same treatments after signing a bill aimed at barring transgender girls from playing on women’s sports teams.

“I don’t think the Republicans I serve with and the Republicans in the state want to victimize trans youth. I feel like people are being drawn into this conversation and I don’t even understand what’s driving it,” said Cavanaugh, who argues that Republicans are using misleading and flawed data to question the efficacy and safety of gender therapy.

Kauth told HuffPost that her goal is to prevent minors from making body-altering decisions they might regret in the future, a common justification for banning gender therapy. In general, studies have found that only 1% of people those who have made the transition ultimately regret the decision. And most continue to live a happier life, according to a new study from The Washington Post.

Kauth, who runs a mediation firm outside of her job in the legislature, described a conversation with a transgender girl who confirmed to her that minors “are not capable of evaluating” these types of life-altering decisions, even if they require the consent of parents.

“I spoke to a young man who is, he introduces himself as a girl, he and his mother came over to talk, and when I talked about the churn rates and the fact that this might not be what you really want in the long run, he said: ‘It doesn’t matter, after I get the operation, if I don’t like it, I’ll just come back.’ I really had to say, ‘Once you cut things down, you can’t put them back. This is a 16-year-old, so for this individual, they don’t understand the intricacies of that type of surgery and the things you’re going to have to live with for the rest of your life.”

Kauth wants parents to know that they have options. “When your child is distressed, it is a chemical reaction. You want to do anything to make them feel better,” she said. “Parents who are in that situation will do whatever it takes. And if a doctor says this is the only way, well, it’s not the only way.”

Cavanaugh did not respond to a follow-up on Thursday about his next steps. But if his earlier interview is any indication, Cavanaugh’s job isn’t done. She described the filibuster as a turning point for members of the legislative minority who have been persistently silenced. Cavanaugh is already in her second term, but she has been unable to advance any of her child welfare priorities, including free meals for students and services for incarcerated mothers.

If you give nothing to the minority, then you have nothing to lose, he said.

“People think, well, ‘You’re not going to pass your stuff.’ He was never going to approve my stuff. Ever. None of them were going to let me pass a bill. That is a problem of their own making. They decided that they were going to take everything from me so that I would have no reason not to fight. And they got it. They did a great job on that.”